[Koha-devel] Issuing rules

[Michael Hafen]

I would like to place what little influence I have in favor of this
idea.  I am one of those who had trouble with the way issuing rules
workes in 2.2.  I have gone as far as implementing something very
similar to this already in my install.

I will add that, as I recall, there are two places in the 2.2 code that
I had to change.  I haven't seen the 3.0 code, so that may not be the
case anymore.  I'll look at the 2.2 code to see if I can find the other
place again.

Let's see...  One was in C4/Circulation/Circ.pm::TooMany, also
C4/Circulation/Fines.pm::CalcFine.  I've change CalcFine() so much
though, that it's hard to tell if you will need to make adjustments
there or not.  I suspect you will.

On Tue, 2007-10-09 at 15:21 +0200, Paul POULAIN wrote:
> Hello world,
> 
> We are reviewing Koha for 3.0 Release & Joshua pointed something 
> important: the way issuingrules worked in koha 2.2.
> 
> In Koha 2.2, the way it works is :
> - you define the rules depending on itemtype / patron category / branch
> - you have "wildcard" that means "all of them". For example, * / adult / 
> * = 5 means "an adult patron can't issue more than 5 items whatever the 
> branch".
> - The circ module check ALL the rules & warn if one is not correct. So, 
> if you don't fill a cell, it's considered as 0 (= no issue possible)
> - you must fill book / * / * by understanding it means : "no patron 
> can't issue more than X book(s)"
> 
> This behaviour troubled a lot users, as we often have questions about 
> warnings that were not expected.
> 
> Joshua think, and i' fully agree with him, that the user understand the 
> wildcard as 'default if nothing specified'.
> So, for example, book / * / * would mean : if a specific rule is not 
> defined for patron category, then use this default value.
> 
> We should not have a "check ALL the rules", but a "check the 1st 
> available, from most to less specific + check the total rule if available.".
> 
> The "wildcard" on itemtype being renamed to "total", and being applied 
> if defined, as total document the patron can issue.
> 
> so we could have something like that
>         adult   children  default
> book   empty     3,21      5,21
> serial  4,14     3,21      5,21
> comic   5,21     3,21      empty
> total    7       empty      5
> 
> which would mean :
> - an adult can issue 5 books for 21 days (default rule)
> - an adult can issue 4 serials for 14 days (specific rule)
> - an adult can issue 7 documents total
> - a child can issu 3 books, 3 serials, 3 comics, but 5 document maximum
> 
> The "branch level" has the same behaviour : it a rule for a branch is 
> defined, then it's applicable, otherwise, it's the default rule of the 
> default branch.
> 
> 
> Let us know your opinion on this.
> It would require some tweaking on issuingrules definition & a small 
> rewrite the CanBookBeIssued sub, to check only 2 rules (1st found + 
> total), not 8 (every cell that fit the issue).
> 
>